USD Basketball: Powerhouse in the Making?

The University of San Diego didn’t quite make the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, but the Toreros definitely did make an impression.

Not only are they the first San Diego team ever to win an NCAA Tournament game with Friday’s overtime victory over heavily-favored Connecticut, but look what the future holds in store.

These Toreros, believe it or not, are a team of entirely underclassmen ... meaning everybody on the roster can come back next season.

Center Gyno Pomare and guard Brandon Johnson, the team’s mainstays, still have one year of eligibility remaining.

For starters, they will likely be joined in the line up next season by the likes of De’Jon Jackson, Rob Jones and Trumaine Johnson.

And to think that Jones and Trumaine Johnson have three years remaining ... and Jackson, the hero of the 70-69 overtime win vs. UConn, has two years to go.

The Toreros won’t get a shot at UCLA in the Sweet 16 after losing Sunday to Western Kentucky, but this team has a great future ahead under coach Bill Grier (assuming a bigger school doesn’t swoop him away one day with a better financial offer.)

Loyola Marymount dominated the West Coast Conference for awhile in the 1980s; then Pepperdine had a decade of dominance; followed by Gonzaga.

Who will have the next decade of dominance in the WCC?

Don’t be surprised if it’s the USD Toreros.

USD has outside shot vs. UConn

All eight favored teams won in the opening session of the NCAA Tournament.

Does that bode poorly for the University of San Diego?

Let’s hope not.

The Toreros will be among the eight teams expected to lose during the second day’s early session of the tournament Friday.

Not only is the University of Connecticut an 11 to 12-point favorite over USD; the Huskies are a No. 4 seed playing the 13th seeded Toreros.

Not good!

USD really has one chance to win: the 3-point shooting of guard Brandon Johnson.

If he’s on, the Toreros have an outside chance (pardon the pun.) If not, hopefully the Toreros will come closer than San Diego State did in its 24-point loss to Florida in the opening round of the NIT Tournament.

USD will certainly be dominated inside by All-Big East Defensive Player of the Year Hasheem Thabeet, a 7-foot-3 sophomore center who averaged 4.5 blocked shots a game this season.

So Johnson, maybe with a little help from Rob Jones, will definitely need to keep shooting and succeeding!

Prediction: UConn 73, USD 64

Toreros have something to build on

Coach Bill Grier was hired before this men’s basketball season to get the University of San Diego into the upper-quartile of the West Coast Conference.

Getting to be among the top two of eight teams in the conference is probably going to happen quicker than expected for the Toreros.

Already, USD has earned the No. 3 seed in Grier’s first season for the WCC Tournament this weekend at Jenny Craig Pavilion on the USD campus.

It would be a stunner if USD overcomes Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s to reach the NCAA Tournament, but don’t be surprised if it happens next year when the Toreros again host the WCC finals.

USD had two holdover players from the regime under former coach Brad Holland make the all-conference team this season: junior center Gyno Pomare and junior guard Brandon Johnson.

But the freshman class is something to really get excited about. Shooting guard Rob Jones was named to the all-freshman WCC first team and fellow freshman Trumaine Johnson is also going to be a solid player.

This year’s Toreros finished 11-3 in the WCC, their best conference record in 20 years.

And it’s only going to get better in years to come with the current freshman class led by Jones and Trumaine Johnson.